Decision on Rahul gives BJP ammo for meet

If the BJP’s mega conclave from Friday until Sunday was essentially to reboot Narendra Modi’s campaign as the party’s prime ministerial candidate using “good governance” card, party leaders were quick to see fresh ammunition in Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s decision not to name Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate.

As BJP leaders ended their huddle ahead of the gathering of 10,000 BJP delegates from across the country, they saw the task a bit easier to bring back the momentum in favour of Modi.

Concerned that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is the eye-catcher of the media, the deliberations of BJP’s national executive on Friday and its national council on Saturday and Sunday would be to re-invigorate the rank and file following the latest development relating to Rahul’s projection only as head of the Congress campaign.

The BJP’s main theme would be to reach out to voters to spread the message of “Modi for PM.” Its election plank will be rechristened as “Mission Good Governance” to expose and highlight the ten years of “misrule” of the Congress-led UPA.

In response to Sonia’s decision on Rahul Gandhi, BJP chief Rajnath Singh said it indicated that they accepted that Modi is going to be the prime minister.

BJP leader Arun Jaitley said, “I think it is recognition of reality since they know they are not going to form the government. Then why the need for announcing a PM candidate.”

Nevertheless, BJP leaders acknowledged in their internal meetings that they will have to strategise afresh in the wake of AAP success in Delhi and its aim for at least 100 Lok Sabha seats.

However, they saw the issues of style of governance of Arvind Kejriwal and his ministers which were cropping too would provide fodder for BJP to mould public opinion campaign against the nascent party.